Brick-machine



Unire srrns Para time.

BRICK-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 31,918, dated April 2, 1861.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM S. WATSON, of Madison, in the county ofJefferson and State of Indiana, have invented a certain Vnew and usefulImprovement on Brick-Making Machines, of which the following, taken inconnection with the accompanying drawings, that form part of thisspecification, is such a full and clear description as to enable othersskilled in the art to which this belongs to make and use the same.

My present improvement, which is designed more particularly for pressingbrick after it has been molded or roughly formed and partially dried, togive increased solidity and a smoother and better finish to the brickand to render it less susceptible to injury inV finally drying orhandling and removal of it for such purpose, resembles in some respectsthe machine secured to me by Letters Patent of the United States bearingdate June the 7th A. I). 1859. But, while my present improvement, likesuch former machine, uses a `combination of stationary pressing block,intermittently reciprocating pressbox, and plunger or plungers having ajoint motion wit-h the press-box and independent movement thereto, itdispenses or may dispense with the separately reciprocating top andbottom brick holding slides, chambered feed box, and delivery apron orendless-belt conveyer, shown in said previous machine, and employs aless complicated construction and action of parts involving or includinga novel combination of a table or tables or lifters with the formerdevices which I use as aforesaid.

In my previous machine, as referred to, it would sometimes happen thatwhen the brick was a little moist it would adhere to the plunger, thebrick fail to fall straight and level on the apron in its delivery fromthe press-box, and the edges or corners of it be clipped or bruised,also the dirt and trimmings of the brick that fell fromthe press-boxbeing received by the apron were apt to adhere to the face of each newlydischarged brick. By my present improvement all these disadvantages orliabilities are avoided and certain advantages obtained as will appearfrom the following description in which I need only refer briefly to theparts and actions which are common to my former machine as alreadyalluded to.

The machine represented in the accompanying drawings is what maybetermed a double machine, but machines working on the same principlemay be made single, or more than double that is with more than two brickpressing chambers and their pertaining devices. j

In said drawings, Figure l represents a plan of a brick pressing machineembracing my present improvement; Figs. 2 and 3 vertical longitudinalsections thereof, showing certain parts in different positions; and Fig.4 a vertical transverse section of the same at the portion occupied bythe tables or lifters, as indicated by the line oo in Fig. 3.

In these figures, A indicates the frame of the machine which may beconstructed of any suitable shape.

B, is a driving' shaft made to revolve by any convenient power. C, apinion on said shaft giving motion to a spur wheel, D, on the shaft, E,of which is a cam, F for giving through a sliding yoke, G, the necessaryi movement to the intermittently reciprocating press-box which is hereshown double or as having two brick pressing compartments, H and I, oneon either side of the stationary pressing block, J, toward and fromwhich said compartments are made to alternately advance and recede atproper intervals. The same shaft, E, may also give motion, by means ofeccentrics (a), connecting rods (7)) and sliding yoke or frame (o), tothe reciprocating plungers, K, L, which independently of the movementthus communicated to them alternately toward and from the pressingblock,J, have a joint motion with the press box, in the compartments H and Iof which they work.

A brick is pressed, alternately by eitherA plunger slowly advancingtoward the pressing block while and after (or after) the compartment ofthe `press-boit, in which said plunger works, finishes its stroke towardthe pressing block; when the pressboX remains stationary a while notonly to give time for the plunger which is pressing brick to moreperfectly perform its work, but also for the delivery of t-he pressedbrick on the other side of the pressing block and feeding in of freshbrick as will be now fully described.

M, N, are tables or lifters, one to each brick pressing compartment.These tables or lifters are arranged to alternately act as plungers toreceive and discharge the pressed brick and to lower the newly fedbrickdown to its place for the press-box to receive it.

' tate the discharge of the brick.

For this purpose, said tables or lifters have a double intermittentmotion given them. They (that is each lifter) first slide fromunderneath the stationary pressing block, moving in concert with thepress-box, so as to receive the pressed brick as the one compartment ofthe press-box recedes, and then and after said compartment has recededand the press box remains stationary, said lifter rises to the level orthereabout of the top of the pressing block to discharge the pressedbrick or permit of its easy removal and to present a convenient table orsurface for the feeding in of fresh brick which is lowered to its placeby the next motion of the lifter, which is a falling one after which andas the compartment of the press-box advances -to take in the newly fedbrick, the lifter again passes to one side or under the stationarypressing block. Such is the action of either table or lifteralternately, and it is preferable that, `before or as the lifterdischarges the brick, the brick-pressing plunger of the compartment towhich it belongs be given its receding motion so as to prevent stickingand to facili- Various modes of thus operating the tables or lifters maybe adopted, but the following mechanism `is a simple and advantageousone for actuating the lifters where they work in pairs, and whereby onelifting lever is made to raise at their proper intervals both lifters.

O, is a frame to carry the lifters and which may be connected to thepress-box so as to reciprocate with it in order to give to the lifterstheir before specified sideward actions at intervals alternately beneathand out of the range of the brick pressing chambers or cavities. Thissecures to the lifters their one intermittently reciprocating motion,and the same movement aids in alternating the raising and lowering ofthe lifters. To give the lifters, M, N, this lasti named or secondreciprocating motion at intervals to lift or discharge the pressed brickand lower fresh brick to its place for pressure, the lifters, which arehung to have free vertical movement i'n the sliding frame, O, are eachprovided with slots (d (l) that alternately, and accordingly as thesliding frame, O, finishes its stroke to the right or to the left,receive within them studs or pins (c e) that project from a liftinglever, P. This lever (P), each time that it is thus thrown into gearwith either lifter alternately, is struck or operated so as to raise thelifter and then allowed to fall with the lifter, which effects thedischarge and feed as aforesaid. Such motion may be given to said leverby means of an arm, R, on its fulcrum or rock-shaft (f), operated by vatwo throw cam, S, on the spur wheel shaft, E; or said motion may beproduced in any other suitable manner.

Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawing show either lifter as about to be raised inits turn and4 in accordance with a reversed position of the press-boxand its plunger-s.

I claim- The combination of a pressing` block, intermittentlyreciprocating press-box formed with one or more pressing chambers,independently reciprocating plunger or plungers, and table or lifter ortables or lifters having at intervals not only a raising and loweringaction across or through the press box but also an intermittinglyreciprocating motion in concert with the press-box substantially as andfor the purpose or purposes hereinset forth.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name this eighth dayof February 1861.

VILLIAM S. WATSON.

Titnesses RUFUS GALE, EPI-r KENNEDY.

